Figure 1.15. Applications of computer

· Medicine Medical researchers and practitioners use computers to access information about the advances in medical research or to take opinion of doctors globally. The medical history of patients is stored in the computers. Computers are also an integral part of various kinds of sophisticated medical equipments like ultrasound machine, CAT scan machine, MRI scan machine, etc. Computers also provide assistance to the medical surgeons during critical surgery operations like laparoscopic operations, etc.

· Science and Engineering Scientists and engineers use computers for performing complex scientific calculations, for designing and making drawings (CAD/CAM applications) and also for simulating and testing the designs. Computers are used for storing the complex data, performing complex calculations and for visualizing 3-dimensional objects. Complex scientific applications like the launch of the rockets, space exploration, etc., are not possible without the computers.

· Government The government uses computers to manage its own operations and also for e-governance. The websites of the different government departments provide information to the users. Computers are used for the filing of income tax return, paying taxes, online submission of water and electricity bills, for the access of land record details, etc. The police department uses computers to search for criminals using fingerprint matching, etc.

· Home Computers have now become an integral part of home equipment. At home, people use computers to play games, to maintain the home accounts, for communicating with friends and relatives via Internet, for paying bills, for education and learning, etc. Microprocessors are embedded in house hold utilities like, washing machines, TVs, food processors, home theatres, security devices, etc.

The list of applications of computers is so long that it is not possible to discuss all of them here. In addition to the applications of the computers discussed above, computers have also proliferated into areas like banks, investments, stock trading, accounting, ticket reservation, military operations, meteorological predictions, social networking, business organizations, police department, video conferencing, telepresence, book publishing, web newspapers, and information sharing.

Summary

· Computer is an electronic device which accepts data as input, performs processing on the data, and gives the desired output. A computer may be analog or digital computer.

· Speed, accuracy, diligence, storage capability and versatility are the main characteristics of computer.

· The computing devices have evolved from simple mechanical machines, like ABACUS, Napier’s bones, Slide Rule, Pascal’s Adding and Subtraction Machine, Leibniz’s Multiplication and Dividing Machine, Jacquard Punched Card System, Babbage’s Analytical Engine and Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine, to the first electronic computer.

· Charles Babbage is called the father of computer.

· The evolution of computers to their present state is divided into five generations of computers, based on the hardware and software they use, their physical appearance and their computing characteristics.

· First generation computers were vacuum tubes based machines. These were large in size, expensive to operate and instructions were written in machine language. Their computation time was in milliseconds.

· Second generation computers were transistor based machines. They used the stored program concept. Programs were written in assembly language. They were smaller in size, less expensive and required less maintenance than the first generation computers. The computation time was in microseconds.

· Third generation computers were characterized by the use of IC. They consumed less power and required low maintenance compared to their predecessors. High-level languages were used for programming. The computation time was in nanoseconds. These computers were produced commercially.

· Fourth generation computers used microprocessors which were designed using the LSI and VLSI technology. The computers became small, portable, reliable and cheap. The computation time is in picoseconds. They became available both to the home user and for commercial use.

· Fifth generation computers are capable of learning and self organization. These computers use SLSI chips and have large memory requirements. They use parallel processing and are based on AI. The fifth generation computers are still being developed.

· Computers are broadly classified as microcomputers, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and supercomputers, based on their sizes and types.

· Microcomputers are small, low-cost stand-alone machines. Microcomputers include desktop computers, notebook computers or laptop, netbooks, tablet computer, handheld computer and smart phones.

· Minicomputers are high processing speed machines having more storage capacity than the microcomputers. Minicomputers can support 4-200 users simultaneously.

· Mainframe computers are multi-user, multi-programming and high performance computers. They have very high speed, very large storage capacity and can handle large workloads. Mainframe computers are generally used in centralized databases.

· Supercomputers are the most expensive machines, having high processing speed capable of performing trillions of calculations per second. The speed of a supercomputer is measured in FLOPS. Supercomputers find applications in computing-intensive tasks.

· Computer is an electronic device based on the input-process-output concept. Input/Output Unit, CPU and Memory unit are the three main components of computer.

· Input/Output Unit consists of the Input unit which accepts data from the user and the Output unit that provides the processed data. CPU processes the input data, and, controls, coordinates and supervises the operations of the computer. CPU consists of ALU, CU and Registers. The memory unit stores programs, data and output, temporarily, during the processing. Additionally, storage unit or secondary memory is used for the storing of programs, data and output permanently.

· Computers are used in various areas of our life. Education, entertainment, sports, advertising, medicine, science and engineering, government, office and home are some of the application areas of the computers.

Keywords

ABACUS 3

Analog computer 2

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) 13

Assembly language 5

Babbage’s Analytical Engine 4

Central Processing Unit (CPU) 6

Computer 2

Control Unit (CU) 13

Data 11

Desktop computer 8

Digital computer 2

Dumb terminal 9

Fifth Generation Computer 6

First Generation Computer 4

Floating point Operations Per Second (FLOPS) 9

Fourth Generation Computer 6

Hardware 4

Hollerith’s tabulator 4

Input 11

Input/Output Unit 12

Integrated Circuit (IC) 5

Intelligent terminal 9

Jacquard’s punch card 3

Large Scale Integration (LSI) 6

Leibniz’s Machine 3

Machine language 4

Mainframe computers 9

Memory 13

Microcomputers 7

Microprocessor 6

Minicomputers 9

Napier’s bones 3

Netbook 8

Notebook computer 8

Output 12

Parallel processing 7

Pascal’s Machine 3

Personal Computer (PC) 8

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) 9

Process 12

Program 11

Punched cards 4

Second Generation Computer 5

Slide Rule 3

Smart phones 9

Software 11

Storage unit 6

Supercomputer 9

Super Large Scale Integrated (SLSI) chips 6

Tablet computer 8

Third Generation Computer 5

Transistors 5

Users 11

Vacuum Tubes 4

Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) 6

Questions

Section 1.2

1. Define an analog computer and a digital computer.

2. Give an example each of analog computer and digital computer.

Section 1.3

3. List the main characteristics of the computer.

4. Describe the characteristics of the computer.

5. List three significant limitations of the computer.

Section 1.4

6. Explain briefly the developments in computer technology starting from a simple calculating machine to the first computer.

7. What is a calculating machine?

8. What is the key feature of the Jacquard’s punch card?

9. Name the first calculating device for the counting of large numbers.

10. Who is called the Father of Computer?

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